Oblivion
by Doctor Writer M.D
Summary: "The Hunger Games is becoming boring. Primarily because of its predictability. Put twenty-four teens in an arena and tell them that the only way to survive is to kill each other and you will get glory and gore; the thrilling drama. But put twenty-four teens in an area who have no idea why they are in there and you get so much more."
1. Awake

"The Hunger Games is becoming boring. Primarily because of its predictability. Put twenty-four teens in an arena and tell them that the only way to survive is to kill each other and you will get glory and gore; the thrilling drama. But put twenty-four teens in an area who have no idea why they are in there and you get so much more."

* * *

It felt like waking up from a dream, except that she couldn't remember anything from the dream. Actually, Katniss didn't remember anything pertaining to how where she was and even how she got there. She could hear the sound of water flowing and the feel the mossy, wet ground beneath her before she even had the strength to open her eyes.

She assumed that she was alone; why wouldn't she? But the sound of movement close enough to her that she could tell which direction it came from, made her realize that she wasn't. She turned, while attempting to sit up, to see confused, green eyes wandering around the scene, only to land or her a millisecond later.

The two teens stared at each other in silence, taking in each other appearance. The boy looked young, and Katniss reckoned that he could be no older than seventeen, maybe sixteen. But they were dressed in similar clothes and the boy rested on a spear that was scattered on the ground.

Katniss assessed herself and realized that she, unlike the boy, had no form of weapon within her reach, and that bothered her deeply. Her mind started running at thousand miles per hours, going over several possible scenarios, and how she could respond to them.

She hated being defenseless and here she was in the forest - not remembering how she got there - with a boy who had his hand near a spear.

Katniss kept her eyes glued on the boy, anxious about any sudden movement that he would make. However, the boy's eyes soon diverted from her and landed behind her. He opened his mouth, "Who's he?"

It took Katniss a few second to register what he just asked and decide that she should take her eyes away from him to see who the mysterious 'he' was. Turning her eyes, towards her other side, she say another boy - young, although his body was so bulky and developed, it made Katniss doubt how old he was. He, unlike, the other boy and Katniss, had his eyes shut and was dead to the world.

"Is he dead?" The boy whispered, hoping that Katniss would give him an answer.

Katniss looked back around to see the boy hand grip the spear that was within his reach, and as that a cue, Katniss sprang to her feet, in defence.

"Woah," The boy attested. "Calm down, scaredy cat." He teased, peering up on her.

Katniss didn't dare to let down her guard, preparing to run in any second.

The boy slowly released the spear from his grip, although making sure that it was right beside him before standing up. "Ok, no spear." He declared, holding his hands up.

Katniss looked down at the spear on the ground and then back up to the boy's face. Was this some kind of trick?

"You know, you need to calm down." He recommended in a teasing tone. "I can't imagine how tiring it must be to assume that everyone is out to hurt you, after just meeting them."

Katniss kept her thoughts to herself from some more second before replying, "I just woke up with no recollection of how I got here, with you next to me, with a spear. What do you want me to assume?"

"That I am in the same position as you?" The boy answered. "And if that guy is alive?" He nodded to the boy who was still on the ground.

Still unmoving, the boy shook his head before moving over to the boy on the ground. Stooping down, he moved his hand to the boy's neck.

"He has a pulse." The boy informed Katniss.

Katniss said nothing. Not knowing how to reply, after all she just woke up in the forest with a boy who seemed way too trusting and a boy who was out cold, but still alive.

"What do you think happened?" Katniss asked, hesitantly.

The boy scoffed. "Do you really expect me to understand the answer to that question?"

Katniss, reassessing her question, realized how stupid it was. He most likely was telling the truth about not being able to remember anything similarly to her.

Katniss turned around, taking in their surroundings. They were among trees, but there was also a small pond a few feet from them.

Katniss started to walk away, but the boy who name she didn't know, shouted "What do you think you're doing?"

Katniss turned around. " I am going to see if I can find my way back."

Like earlier, their eyes were glued to each other.

"Back where? We are in the middle of nowhere." He stood up.

"Well, if I don't try to find a way back to District 12, we will be stuck here all night."

"Wait?" The boy asked. "You're from District 12?"

Katniss nodded promptly, despite thinking about how ridiculous his question was, but she soon realized that she have never seen the boy in front of her before. Although, that wasn't saying much. District 12 was small, however, Katniss never had the time or cared enough to talk to or make friends with many of her the teens her age in the district. Plus, she was from the Seam and the boy in front of her, judging from his physical health,and his manner, she could tell that most likely he was one of those well off teens whose parents owned a business in town.

"I'm from the Seam." Katniss explained, hoping that will address any confusion he had about not knowing her.

"I don't really know what a Seam is, but ok?" He replied.

Katniss was shocked. Was this boy so pampered and sheltered that he didn't even know the name for the less well-off section of Twelve? Katniss shook her head in disbelief.

"That's interesting." The boy muttered to himself loudly. "You're from 12, I'm from 1 and he's -" He paused.

"You're not from 12?" Katniss asked.

The boy shook his head. "Why would you assume that I was from 12?"

"Because-" Katniss started but found herself with no words. Looking around, she expressed, "Then where are we?"

* * *

Peeta had a headache. He were used to having headache, although this was far by the worst headache he ever recalled having. However, his headache was the least of his problem, when he opened his eyes to a silver knife at his throat and someone straddling him.

"One move, and I'll make it deep enough that you bleed out slowly."

The voice was light, but was so stern that Peeta didn't dare move.

The person leaned forward and Peeta's eyes meet large, dark brown ones. They glared intensely at him.

Peeta opened his mouth to speak, but reconsidered when he the knife pressed deeper into his throat, but did not slice it.

"Did I tell you, you can speak?" The girl spoke again.

Peeta froze.

"Who are you?" The girl asked.

Still in shock, Peeta said nothing.

"Speak!" She barked in his face.

"I-I'm Peeta." He stuttered, hoping that was what she wanted to know.

"Well, Peeta. Why the hell am I in the forest with you?" She replied.

"I-I don't know." Peeta answer promptly.

"Wrong answer." She rebutted, pressing down on the knife more.

Peeta stopped breathing. He had no doubt that the girl wouldn't kill him.

"I'm sorry." He cried.

"Aww, you think crying-" She started, but the next second she was stiff on the dirt, the knife flung from her still hand.

Peeta quickly moved to his feet and dropped the sizable rock in his hand.

He got to see the girl who earlier held a knife at his throat. She was small in frame, much smaller than him, but he could tell that she was in her teens, no younger than fourteen. He wondered what fourteen year old had no second thoughts about killing someone, but soon he realized the situation that perhaps like him, she couldn't remember how she got her and was scared. However, that did not justify holding a knife to his neck.

Two blood trail trickle down the side of her face and Peeta realizing how hard he might have hitted her, rushed to her side, checking for a pulse. He sighed in relief to feel a slow, but sure pulse at the side of her neck. She was alive. That was a blessing and curse in itself, because although Peeta was relieved of the guilt that came with thought of killing another human, he knew that when she woke up that she most likely slit his throat without any hesitation. His logical mind was telling him to get away as far as possible before she had the chance of waking up, but his more thoughtful side looked around his surroundings and decided that leaving her defenseless in the forest, when it was getting dark was not a nice thing to do. His internal struggle ended with him, picking up the knife that was flung from her hands, and searching her body for any other hidden weapon. He was sure to not touch any part of her body that would violate her personal privacy. All he had to do now was to wait for her to wake up.

* * *

Finch was conflicted, which was a state she hated to be in. She was overall a decisive person, but it was not showing now. She was suppose to leave hours ago, but instead she have been pacing back and forth, waiting, looking at them, waiting and pacing some more. She hated being decisive, but she hated not knowing things even more, and write now she knew nothing. She didn't remember how she got there. She didn't know where she was. She didn't who the two teens laying on the ground were or if they were going to wake up anytime soon. But she didn't want to leave. She might be clever, but bravery wasn't a strength of Finch. It was getting dark and the thought of wandering through the forest by herself was not excited to her. So, she stayed. Looking at them, waiting, pacing. She looked and analyzed their every detailed so much that she felt she already knew so much about them.

There was the olive-skin boy, who wore a woven bracelet on his right wrist. He was young, probably sixteen, maybe fifteen. His hands were rough and chapped, which made Finch assume that he was most likely poor. His face was average, his only interesting feature being his glowing tan. In contrast, the girl was anything but average. Even in her seeming lifeless state, her blonde hair soiled with dirt and her dry lips, she still looked like attractive. She somehow reminded Finch of the fairy tale legend called Sleeping Beauty. Finch could not resist reaching out and running her fingers through the girl's yellow hair but quickly retracted her hand, fearing how creepy she would seem if they the girl woke up to see her running her hands through her hair. In addition, her body was developed much more that Finch's and Finch couldn't help but assume that either the girl was older than her, or perhaps puberty have been kinder to her.

A groan indicated that one of the two was walking up. Finch glimpsed closely to see that it was the boy. She thought about what she should say or what she shouldn't say. She wasn't the best in the social department and Finch hoped that her social awkwardness wouldn't show, much.

At first the boy didn't notice her, being busy observing his surrounding and gripping his right arm in pain, using that as a cue to start the conversation, Finch spoke up, "Are you alright?"

His head quickly turned in her direction, and Finch could tell that he was shocked seeing her standing there.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"My name is Finch." She introduced herself, stepping forward. The boy leaned away from her, causing Finch to stop in her tracks. Of course, he would be wary about her approaching him.

"You don't remember anything, do you?" She implored.

When he made no signs of answering her, she answered her own question. "It's ok. I don't remember anything either."

"Where are we?" He continued to ask questions.

Finch shrugged. She guess it would not have been a bad idea to explore the surrounding beforehand, so that she could get some clues about where they were, but as mentioned earlier, bravery wasn't her strongest suit. Despite her confident manner in most situation, deep down she was insecure and scared about most things.

"I'm sorry about your arm." Finch expressed, trying to fill the silence.

The boy peered up at her. His eyes filled with curiosity, before his eyes caught the body of the girl near his.

"Who is she?" He asked, trying to get a better view of the girl.

Again, Finch shrugged, and the feeling of not knowing things bothered her deeply once again. "She haven't woken up yet."

"How long have you been up?" The boy turned his attention back to Finch.

"Not long." Finch lied. "A few minutes before you woke up."

The boy nodded. Looking into his eyes, Finch realized that his eyes were very light brown. She liked them. A second later, she realized how ridiculous that statement was; liking someone eyes.

"How long do you think I'll take her to wake up?" He nodded towards the girl on the ground.

"Not long, I hope." Finch whispered, more to herself than to the boy.


	2. Blood

Warning: Minor Grammatical Issues

* * *

He didn't trust her.

He didn't express this to her, of course, but he knew better to trust her. The red-head girl.

They sat, neither of them exchanging any words from the time he woke up, which was not long ago.

The yellow-haired girl was still laying on the forest floor faced down.

"Are you sure she is alive?" He asked, eyes still on the sleeping girl.

The red-headed girl -who he now knew as Finch - crawled over and placed her hand on the sleeping girl's back.

"She's - " Finch starts speaking but didn't get a chance to finish since she was startled by the girl's sudden leap out of sleep.

Finch scurried back from the girl, as the blonde turned over, sitting upright and looked at the pair of them with intense, questioning eyes.

"Who are you?" She questioned immediately.

When neither Finch nor he answered, the girl in a swift and almost undetected moment touch the ring on the middle finger of her right hand. The previous round green gem that covered decorated the silver band was now replaced by a short, sharp needle. As she moved to rise, Finch also took it as a cue to also get on her feet.

Chen quickly looked at Finch, to realize that her eyes were on the blonde's girl right hand.

 _She saw it._

For some reason, he wasn't expected her to be so well-observed.

"Calm down. We're not going to hurt you." Finch spoke to the girl.

"Then tell me, who the hell are you?" She lifted her arms, the ring in clear sight now.

"I'm Finch." She answered, staring at the girls face now.

There was silence, and only when the blonde's girl emerald's eyes turned in his direction, that he notice they were waiting for him to introduce myself.

"Chen." He murmured.

"Hen?" She asked incredulously.

He was amused, though he tried his best not to show it.

"Chen." He said louder, though not by much.

"Where are we?" The blonde girl asked her second question. She clearly didn't intend to introduce herself. Neither Flinch or himself thought to ask or perhaps it was because she was holding a sharp, needle ready to pounce.

"We don't know," Finch replied.

"Why are you so quiet?" She was now pointing her ring in my direction, which he thought was quite stupid since Flinch was so much closer to her and she had a better shot of getting to her, and also that the reason she suspected something of him was because was quiet.

He was quiet; Probably his most distinctive trait. If you asked anyone in District 10 about him they would either not know who he was, or say that he was the quiet boy, who hardly talked, and had the terrible accident with his leg when he was just eight. Some might even go far as to say that he was shy, but does people obviously didn't know him well.

"You're doing all the talking. Why should I interrupt?" He replied.

She wasn't amused or impressed by his comment, and after a few seconds of silent contemplation and observation, the girl spat "I'm leaving. If anyone of you follows me you'll regret it."

She cautiously reached for a backpack, slinging it over her shoulder before stepping back into the dark. She kept her eyes on us as she walked away, only turning to run when she was quite far out. They didn't stop her.

"Why would she think we would want to follow her?" He murmured to himself, slowly. But apparently not low enough because Flinch murmured back "I know right."

* * *

There was so thing crawling on her face. It was light and barely crawling, but it was enough to jolt her out of the sleep that she didn't even recall falling into. She frantically twists and turn, but felt that her hands were bounded behind her back. The twisting and turning resulted in her falling forward on her face.

"Fuck." She cursed.

It wasn't until a hand, reached for her shoulder and pulled her back to sitting up straight that she was able to sit up. As she tried to stand, Clove recognized that her feet were also bound.

"What the hell?"

Her eyes moved from the hand that was still gripping her shoulder to the face of the hand's owner.

"Move your hand or I'll cut it off when I get free."

"I was actually planning to cut the rope, but in retrospect." The boy before her informed her.

"I'll do you one better. When I get loose, I'll cut off all your fingers before I start on the hand." She spat back.

"You're really not helping yourself out here," Peeta replied.

She just glared at him, before huffing a strain of loose hair out of her face. "I'm going to kill you."

"Before you do that, could you at least tell me your name?"

She stared blankly at him. She wasn't sure if he was actually serious or not.

She scoffed. "Are you serious, right now?"

The look on his face told her that he was totally clueless.

"Are you actually trying to pick me up right now?" She squinted her eyes at him.

"No." He deadpanned. "I just asked you for your name."

"Why do you need to know my name?"

He sighed as if I was annoying him. As if.

"We are having a conversation. Normal people usually exchange names with the people they are talking to." He explains. "Plus, you already know my name. It's only fair that I get to know yours."

The red mark on his neck reminded her that she did ask him for his name earlier, however, she didn't actually care enough to actually remember the answer he gave her.

"Do I?"

Peeta folded his hands. He wasn't sure if the girl was messing with him or if he hit her too hard earlier.

"What's your name?" He asked her.

Again she didn't answer.

"I'll tell you mine if you answer me." He negotiated, hoping that it will be enough to either get him an answer or figure out if she is messing with him.

"You think I care enough to know your name?" She spat.

"Then what do you care about?"

What the hell was with him and his questions. "Look, Save your energy. If you are going to kill me, just do it or be stupid enough to let me live long enough to kill you."

"I'm not going to kill you."

"Bad decision."

He scoffed. Was this girl serious? "Are you really pushing me to kill you?"

"Just letting you know that you have the option since you are seemingly too stupid to even consider it."

She was bluffing, of course. To see what kind of guy he is. Something tipped her off that he wasn't one to kill, not even for a cause or good reason. Weak. He was weak. She'll make good use of that.

* * *

There were two other people here. He could hear them breathing, then they started to talk. Well, one of them started to talk - a male- and the other one didn't reply to any of the male's questions or statements until he heard her reply, "Do you ever stop talking?"

It was a female. Two of them were feet away from him, judging from their volume, less than 10 feet. How stupid was the both of them? They first made the mistake of sitting close to him and didn't even manage to recognize that he was awake and have been for quite some time.

"It's getting late." The male spoke. The female, like expected, didn't reply. "We shouldn't stay here."

"You want to leave him here?" The female spoke.

"It's been some time, and he still hasn't woke up. We can't just sit and watch him forever. We need to figure out where we are."

So they didn't know where they were. Good. That made things much more optimistic for Cato.

"Would you have liked if I left you unconscious in the middle of the forest? The female spoke.

"I woke up before you did."

After a second of silence, the female replied: "I'm not leaving, at least until he wakes up."

"Well, I'm hungry." The boy complained. There was some sound of movement. "I'm going to find something to eat."

He could hear the boy walking away. Even better. The female remained. She could be easier to deal with. It was definitely easier to fight one person, compared with fighting two.

It took him two seconds to leap up and get on his feet, but to his disappointment, the female was already on her feet.

Stone, gray eyes collided with sky blue ones. They were in a deadlock. Neither of them moved. Or spoke. Or did much really. They just stared at each other waiting for the other to make the next move.


	3. Blonde

Maybe running away from them wasn't the best idea. Glimmer admitted that to herself.

It took her quite some time to make a fire. A fire that was soon lit out with the light, night drizzle.

She didn't know where she was (although they didn't either), but of she didn't run away then she won't be alone in the middle of the forest in the night. Lonely, confused, scared.

She was worried about them harming her, but realize that it could be much more dangerous beginning alone, in a place like this.

She couldn't go back. It was much too dark to travel back the few miles, plus her pride was much too developed to go back and ask to stay with them, just because she was scared.

She'll be alright. She promised herself. She was capable to take care of herself, despite not ranking well in the Academy back in One.

One. She set out to find her way back to the District but after her travel for miles, she began to consider that maybe she wasn't near One, although she wasn't sure how that could happen.

She had no recollection of how she got here. That scared her the most. Yet, she reassured herself that she would be fine.

* * *

"Calm down." Was the first thing she said to him.

She understood what he could be feeling right now. Confusion. Fright.

"Who are you?" He replied.

"My name is Katniss." She answered.

"I didn't ask for your name." He rebutted.

After consideration for a few seconds, Katniss aimed to answer his question again, "I'm lost. So don't ask me where we are?"

The boy's eyes wandered , before returning to her.

"You don't remember anything either?" He asked.

She shook her head.

After a second of silence, he reached down for something in the grass. Seeing that it was a sword, Katniss eased back. However, the boy just turned and walked in the opposite direction.

"Where are you going?" She couldn't help but ask.

He stopped and turn to look at her, " To find out where we are?"

"You shouldn't go walking by yourself." It was out of Katniss's mouth before she could consider that she didn't know this boy. They haven't spoken until about ten minutes ago. If he wanted to walk around in hope of finding out their situation, it was really none of her business. She had no objection to the other boy leaving, but he made it clear that he planned to return after he found food. The blonde one, however didn't. She didn't know why she even cared if he left, never to return. She didn't even know his name.

He replies with a mere blank stare at her. Probably thinking the same thing she was thinking a second ago. Why the hell did she care?

Maybe this was the time for her to admit to herself that she was scared. At least a small part of her was scared of people alone, in the dark, in the forest, not knowing how she even got there. The green-eyed boy had his spear and the boy she was staring at now in the dark, had a sword which seems to be an extension of himself. She had nothing. She was weaponless.

She didn't trust either of them, but she considered that since they've been concious, neither of them tried to hurt her. For now, she figured that it would be best to stick around until she got get hands on a suitable weapon or got answers.

"Do you plan to stay here all night?" The boy asked. Katniss didn't miss the slightly mocking tone of his voice.

"Do you really plan on finding what you are looking for by walking around a forest at night?" She rebutted.

"If you sit around planning how best to find answers, you are never going to find answers." Katniss was impressed, though tried her hardest not to show it. He was smarter than he looks. Maybe she shouldn't underestimate either of them.

Nevertheless, she responded, "Maybe it's best to look for answers when you can actually see where you're going."

"Fine. You can stay here all night. " He finalized before walking off.

* * *

"Aren't you hungry?" Peeta stared at the girl who haven't said a word to him for hours.

She didn't answer him immediately, but after a few minutes she responded, "How the hell am I supposed to eat with my hands tied?"

He walked over to her, food in hand, and held it up to her mouth.

"What do I look like? A dog?"

"You did threaten to kill me if I loose you."

"So you are just going to tie me up and carry me around?" She rolled her eyes.

"I can leave you tied up here, in the forest." He said although he knew he wasn't going to do that.

He swore he saw a glint of fear on her face before it was replaced by an arrogant smirk.

"I dare you." She taunted.

"No." He replied, before pushing the food closer to her mouth. "Now eat."

She use all the energy she could muster to roll to the right, her tied feet tripping his and landing him on his back. She didn't move to fight him or anything, she just sat and smiled.

When he finally recover his balance to his feet, he drop the food in her lap. "Fine. Find a way to eat with your hands tied.", before walking off.

* * *

"We should try and find our way back tomorrow."

The night was quiet, so it wasn't too hard for Chen to hear what she was saying.

"Back to where?" He asked.

She didn't know where, but she knew that staying where they were now wasn't a good idea.

"I don't know. I just want to get answers, ok?" She snapped.

"You want to go seek answers by waking around with limited resources?" The blonde chick took one of the two backpacks they had.

"You have a better idea?" She hated when people questioned her ideas.

Chen shrugged, and reached out to their only bagpack. It contained some rope, a water bottle with no water in it, bandages, a lighter and a package of personal items. The person who packed this obviously had no sense of how to survive in a forest. He suspected the blonde girl. Maybe Finch, she was smart but he wasn't sure if she had experience of camping in any sort. But most likely, the blonde.

He moved to repack the bag when a silver glint caught his eye in the grass. It was a bow.

He reached out for it, grasping the cold silver metal of the weapon. A weapon he never used before or even saw in real life. A weapon with no arrows.

He looked around but no arrows were around to be seen.

* * *

Please -pretty please - do me a favor and comment 1) Who your favorite "team" is so far? And 2) Who's your favorite character so far?

Also, brief author's note; one of my greatest concern with writing this is keeping everyone in-character as possible. I love fanfiction where everyone is in character and make logical choices depending on their personality type, and the situations around them. I always question if the action and dialogue that I write for my character really fits them and try to edit my writing if it does not. So feel free to tell me, even if it is only slightly, if something is out of character.


	4. Black

Her hair was inching her but she suffered through it. She didn't even try to free herself or shake her head to relieve the inch.

She knew pain. The way her arm felt after throwing 100 knives in a row. Or her feet after 100 laps. Or her body after the Academy's hand-to-hand fight evaluation which she hated because she sucked at it. Her size wasn't too in her favor when it came to a physical altercation, however, she could take anyone out with a knife from at most 50 feet. She had her strengths, but she also had her weakness which she tried her hardest to bury away from herself and other people, especially other people.

So, yeah, she knew pain, and her inch wasn't painful. Just stupidly annoying.

Although she didn't look at him, she could feel his gaze on her from time to time. She figured he was just checking to see that she was stilled tied up and not trying to get loose.

He tied the knot quite good she had to admit. She wasn't sure what she planned to get free, but she was working on a plan.

Like she found out earlier, he was weak. He was the kind of guy to believe that someone was good even after screwing him over multiple times. He also seems stupidly sentimental and needy for kindness and affection.

Clove for a brief millisecond consider playing on that card, but couldn't bring herself to even deliberate on it. She wasn't a naturally kind person, and there was no need for her to develop 'her sense of kindness' in a place like District Two. So acting to be kind was out of the question.

However, she thought about a different, yet close alternative. She wasn't naïve. She's seen how some boys crack under the certain attention from girls. She wasn't that kind of girl. Back at Two, she spends most of her time training and anything that distracted her from that was a waste of time. She reckoned that she would be terrible at it and took it out of her possible plans to get free.

She snapped out her thought as she walked over to her in the dark. He didn't light a fire, although it wasn't that cold, but guarding someone you tied up in the dark, wasn't a smart idea. She figured he didn't know how to light a fire. Idiot.

She glared up at him when he stopped a few feet from her, prepared to ask him what the hell he wanted, when he softly asked, "Where does it hurt?"

She stared blankly at him, wondering how he could possibly have known that she had an itch. Technically, he said hurt, which made him incorrect, yet he picked up that she had a problem. Was he that observant ? Because she was quite sure she showed no signs of having an itch.

"What are you talking about?" She spat in an aggregated voice, causing him to roll his eyes before turning back to walk away.

However, he stopped after a few feet and turned back to her. He walked swiftly and before she knew it, his hand was in her hair.

She struggled to move away from his hand at first, that was before her itch started to be relieved. Then she just sat still as he scratched her hand, looking everywhere but at him. This was probably one of the most awkward situation in her life.

Clove hated people touching her, but here he was, scratching her hair, without her even asking him and her not liking it one bit, but needing it all the same.

When her hair no longer itches, she slightly hit his hand away with her hand. He was looking at her, she could tell from the corner of her eyes. She hoped that he didn't expect her to say thanks.

* * *

"Where did that guy go?" The other guy was back. Katniss noted to herself that maybe she should ask him his name, perhaps later.

"He left." Katniss simply responded, not bothering to look up at him. She secretly hopes that he found food and would be willing to share with her because her stomach now had a familiar ache.

She was going to ask him, though. If he offered she would accept, but she wasn't going to ask him to share. She has dealt with hunger before.

"What?" He questioned, seemingly outraged. "You just let him walk off by himself in the middle of the night? You were supposed to be guarding him."

Katniss didn't understand why he cared so much. "He didn't really ask for my input, you know?"

"Wait." Katniss looked up to see the boy shaking his head once. "You guys talked?"

That's when she realized that he thought that the other boy ran and escape, instead of strolling away after having a conversation.

"He said that he wanted to find out where we are?" Katniss answered.

"In the dark?"

Katniss shrugged.

"He's either really brave or super stupid." The boy commented.

The next minutes all traces of the boy who left was out of their line of thought as the brown-haired boy - Katniss reminded herself once again to find out his name - showed her the berries that he found.

"You didn't eat any of those yet, did you?" Katniss kept the panic out of her voice.

"You think I would eat without you, babe?" He joked.

Katniss stared blankly at him, obviously not finding his joke amusing in the slightest.

"Ok. Maybe I had one." He paused. "Ok. It was two." - " You know what it was just three, but I picked a lot more for you -"

"Throw it up?"

"What?" He asked, obviously confused.

Instead of saying it again, she leaped up and grabbed his hand. In less than a few seconds, she took two of his fingers and shoved it in his mouth. Naturally, he struggled but she held tightly, until he fell forward onto the ground, vomiting.

"What the hell?" He asked when he was done.

"Don't just eat any berries you find. "

Realization dawned on his face. " Was it poisoned?"

"I don't know," Katniss answered truthfully.

"Then why-?"

"Do you really what to take the chance?" Katniss questioned.

"But I'm hungry." He complained, more to himself than Katniss.

 _Better hungry, than dead._

* * *

He was walking for some time now. Looking for any lights in the distance or noise. But it was quiet. Quiet and dark.

He didn't regret his decision of walking away; at least not yet. He still had time. He decided that he would walk all night if he had to.

His walking gave him time to think, and while thinking, he realized that he didn't recognize the girl he talked to earlier. More shockingly, she didn't seem to know him. He wasn't sure, though.

Although District Two was a big district, with a large population, Cato was popular. His family was well-off, and his performance in the Academy made him well known. Perhaps, she was one of those weirdos whose parents didn't let them join the Academy, he thought.

But now, he felt as he was being watched and the next second he found two pairs of bright brown eyes, confirming his suspicion. He slowly stepped back, gripping his sword tightly, not taking his eyes of the animal before him.

Cato planned to strike as soon as the animal leaped at him, but his eyes soon caught two more big, brown eyes coming towards him from the side.

* * *

It was the second time that Glimmer woke up today finding someone standing over her.

Except, this time, she didn't pull out her ring and ask questions. She was much too petrified.

She leaped and backed away, staring at the little girl a mere few feet away from her. She was clenching her stomach and half her face had a thick black substance running down her face.

She opened her mouth to speak, only for more black substance to pour out. She collapsed on the forest floor the next second, seemingly choking on the black substance. She was dying. The little girl was dying in front of her and she didn't know what to do. When she finally unfroze, she did the only thing she could do: Run.

* * *

 **P.S. The little girl who died was Rue. (Yeah, sorry but I needed to do it.) Please review and tell me what you think is going on. So far our characters don't know how they got in the forest, there are wolves with bright brown eyes and Rue dying by a strange black substance. I want theories (although I already know what's really happening. ㈴1)**

 **So in my mind, Clove is definitely not a sweet girl and I won't want to write her as a sweet girl because that would be just wrong. However, I admire her as a character none the less because she is badass and unapologetic about it. However, I am obsessed with the idea with Clove and Peeta together (as you could already tell) because they are so opposite in personality and I think they would eventually complement each other.**

 **This is how I always imagined their relationship: Clove would totally be in love with Peeta but would never ever admit it to anyone, or even mutter the word 'I love you' to him, but Peeta would totally know because he is so good at reading people. And Clove would be super sarcastic and bitchy in a playful way, but Peeta would still think that she is super cute and love her snappy comments, and eventually over time, learn how to respond in his own cute and snappy way. (Aww, I am super fangirling right now because I find them so cute. :D)**


	5. Fire

He ran. He might be arrogant but he wasn't stupid. He knew that wolves run in packs and he wasn't going to fight a pack of wolves head on, especially in the situation he is in.

They were at his heel, gnarling. He ran in a zig-zag fashion, in hopes of slowing them if not ultimately confusing them, but they were still after him, close.

Soon, he saw the clearing, where he woke up only some time earlier. He could see a boy leaping up and looking in his direction. The next second he said something but Cato was too far away (and occupied) to even have a slight clue of his words. The girl he spoke to earlier was now in view.

Their decision to just stand there as he ran towards them, made him question how stupid they are. If someone unexpected is running at full speed towards you, run. That's the rule.

It wasn't until he was a mere 50 feet away from them that the girl decided to run, the boy following close after her.

The forest blazed around him until he saw the girl and the boy up ahead come to a sudden stop. The wolves were at his ankles and if it was for his rapid zig-zag pattern, they would have gawned at him already.

His speed and momentum didn't allow him to slow down, and if it wasn't for the girl who swiftly and tightly gripped his arm, then he would have run off the cliff that he didn't know was there.

The boy, who had a spear, pierced the animal that was right at my ankle. As he threw the animal's limp and bleeding body towards the packs of wolves, they pulled back just a bit.

As the girl let go of his arm, he lifted his arm to strike but stepped back an inch when more wolves ventured out of the forest. There were about over twenty of them now and counting.

"Are you kidding me?" The other boy cursed.

"We have to jump." It was the girl who spoke this time.

"And you've gone crazy." The boy commented, looking over his shoulder, down the cliff. There was dark, blue water at the end of the cliff, nevertheless, chancing the jump wasn't a good idea in Cato's mind.

"Unless you want to fight off thirty wolves." The girl spat. "I say we jump."

"I say we don't." The boy spat back, holding his spear towards the wolves, that were getting more blood-thirsty, closing on us from all sides.

The girl was looking - no, staring - at him now. He could feel her gaze as he kept his eyes on the wolves around us. It was the other boy who spoke, " One-to-one. What do you think?"

Without even looking at each other, he knew that the other boy was addressing him. So, it all depending on him? What were they going to do?

* * *

She knew he didn't trust her. He would be stupid if he did. The feeling we last more or less mutual, but probably less on Finch side.

He insisted that he took watch that night. She asked him if he would want her to wake up and take over from his, so he could sleep, but he refused.

Finch wanted to sleep, but yet again she was a light sleeper. Waking up mid-sleep, a few second hours or so but drifting back to sleep. The other kids would often tease her that she slept with her eyes open because seemingly her eyes never closed completely when she slept.

She was also quite skilled in suspecting if someone was looking at her - perhaps because it happened so rarely. And if he wasn't directly staring at her, she could still sense his glance from the corner of her eyes. It made her tense and almost prevented her from even getting a wink of sleep. She even swore that during one of her mid-sleep awakens, she caught him outright staring at her. It was creepy, to say the least, but as soon as their eyes met, he looked away. It took her quite some time to go back to sleep after that.

But the next time she woke, his eyes weren't on her but instead sealed close. She smiled to herself, sitting up. So much for keeping watch all night. Now it was her time to stare.

It was quiet. So quiet that she could hear her breathe and his snores. Probably, She was too busy in thoughts or too busy staring at him, but she was caught off guard by the girl who ran into the small clearing. Clearly, confused and dazzled. It took her a minute to recognize that it was the girl from earlier, the girl who threatened them and then ran off.

She was out of breath and trying hard to breathe while speaking. " A girl." She took a deep breath. "She's dead."

She was clearly devastated, but Finch not knowing what to do just stared at her. The boy - Chen - was still asleep, quietly snoring. Finch wasn't the warmest person, and comforting somebody wasn't a skill of hers. Nevertheless, she told the girl something that seemed to work for most people, "Calm down."

The girl looked at her. She was more calm but Finch doubts that it was her words that calmed her, more likely her rest from her run, from whatever she was running from. "What is this place?"

She seemed to be talking more to herself than to Finch. The girl was now standing up straight, "You must think I'm crazy."

Finch stared at her. She didn't think anything.

* * *

He couldn't breathe. He was gasping, begging for air but he didn't know why until he opened his eyes. Then he saw the face. She had her hands around his neck, squeezing, and although they barely circled his entire throat, they're pressure caused him to gasp for air.

"Stop." He tried to speak, but it ended up sounding like a whimper. He gripped at her hands and the next second, he preyed hands from his neck. He caught a glimpse of the marking of her struggle against the rope on her wrists and hand.

He held her hand tightly, trying to control her, but she kept kicking at his stomach. He pulled her towards him, hoping that closing the distance would prevent her from kneeling him, but it only made easy her more rampant. She couldn't kick him, but she was moving thrashing around making it harder for him to hold her. Then her teeth came down hard on two of his fingers, causing him to let go.

Crunching his fingers, Peeta barely had time to see her take the backpack, before running northward. He considered if he should even go after her. She was causing way more trouble than he expected, and he couldn't imagine her warming up - or not trying to kill him- anytime in the near future.

However, the smell of smoke and the sudden heat that surrounded him made the decision for him.


	6. Sea

This was cruel. Even according to Capitol standards.

Haymitch's eyes were glued on the large projection above him. None of them expected this. No one did, not even the viewers in the Capitol. But they liked it, surprisingly. They didn't get the Blood Bath of the typical Games and so far only two tributes died by natural causes, but the Game's ratings from viewers in the Capitol were among the highest in history. They loved the drama, or at least the possibility of drama, beyond children killing and being killed.

At least they don't know the situation, they are in, or their fate. At least not yet. But not knowing, didn't make it any less dangerous for them. If they weren't expected to kill each other (until maybe the very end), then the Gamemakers had to find a way to cut down the numbers and keep the element of death in the Game. And from what Haymitch saw, they weren't holding back.

* * *

They fell - not jumped - fell. The other boy sided with him to try and fight off the wolves, but the wolves seemed to more interesting in pushing them towards the cliff than actually attacking then. Was that any more proof that going off the cliff was a bad idea?

He was cold. No freezing. So much so, that he could hardly feel his legs. His entire bottom half. His own body. At least until he managed to get back to the surface. His face relieved from the extreme cold despite it still feeling the after effect of being in the water.

"I can't. I can't. " He shivered. "-feel my legs."

He doubted that they heard him because, at the time, the girl just broke through the water and the boy was struggling to keep his head above water.

The girl realized that the boy was having problems staying afloat and holding the sword at the same time.

"Drop the sword."

The boy looked at him as if he said him the most offensive thing to him. "No."

"It's weighing you down." The girl expressed in a low murmur.

The boy didn't respond, but instead looked around them. Without a word, he began swimming west and it was only the recognition that in the distance there were trees among rocky landscape, that prevented Marvel from asking, where the hell he was going.

They swam. His legs senses slowly coming back since he could now feel the cramping temperature of the water soaking through his pants. It added to the strain of swimming towards the shore, but he didn't complain. That would take too much effort.

It was silent, except for the should of their gasps and breath and push against the water.

He reached the shore first. Marvel, despite not coming from a District with much waterbodies, liked swimming. He was good at. He would often use the pool at the Academy to either warm up before training or cool off afterwards. Plus, his trainer always told him that it was a good skill to have for -

All thoughts we cleared from his mind, as he reached the shore. He just laid down on the sand for a second, relieved, before he remembered the others. He got on his feet despite his legs protesting, and walked into the shallow waters. He helped both of the other get to shore and like him they both laid on the sand, when they were out the water.

It was silent. Only their gasps, breath and the water lightly pushing against them could be heard.

* * *

He fell asleep. He couldn't believe that he feel asleep. When he woke up, his eyes followed the ground until his eyes were met by dark green ones.

It took her a second to look away. This was the second time he woke up to her eyes. At least now he knew that she didn't plan on killing him anytime soon. This, however, didn't mean he trusted her.

She didn't say anything. He didn't say anything. A second later his eyes caught the body that was lying across from both of them. So many questions ran through his mind, but he asked none of them. Instead, he asked, "Are we still going to look around today?"

"Ahm, yes." She replied as if she was jolted out of deep thinking. "When she wakes up." She nodded to the left, and my eyes followed.

She wasn't hard to recognize, but he couldn't help but scoff when his eyes laid upon her sleeping form. _So much for her warning us not to follow her._

"She said she saw someone die." His eyes turned back to Finch and can see his own little look of disbelief reflected back in them.

"Do you two always look at each other like that?" The blonde girl was laid on the grass, but her eyes were open and peering between them.

Neither of us answers, just looking at her. She sighed heavily, as she sat up, her hair carrying with it tiny leaves and specks of dirt. "Do either of you speak?"

Chen thought that was a stupid question to ask since she heard both of them spoke before, but slowly came to understand her question when neither him or Finch tried to answer or rebut her question.

She shrugged her shoulders, her green eyes more intense and seeming begging for either of them to say something.

"We need to leave soon." Finch stuttered then, diverting all the attention to her.

"Why?" The blonde girl asked. "Where are we going?"

"To find out where we are?"

"Oh." The blonde murmured. "Good idea." She stood up, walking towards them.

"It's not a bad thing to assume that you guys have food somewhere stacks, right?" She was now opening the backpack as if it was hers. They merely stared at her as she gently searched the bag and found the bag of peanuts half way down.

She opened the bag and placed it between us as if she was expecting them to all share. She took a few peanuts, and they watched her chew on them one at a time.

"My name's Glimmer, by the way." She placed another peanut in her mouth when she was done chewing she continued. "Sorry about all the threatening and craziness, yesterday. I was not in a good mood."

"You're name is Flinch and Chen." She looked between them, it becoming a seemingly developing habit of hers now. She messed up Finch's name but Finch didn't even correct her.

"So, the only reason I came back is because I woke up to some little girl dying literally five feet from me."

Chen highly doubted that she actually meant literally.

"You don't believe me?" Her green eyes were now trained on him.

He shrugged. It didn't really matter if he believed her or not, did it?

"You two are the most "I don't give a damn" people I ever met."

* * *

Smoke. There was so much smoke and the smell. The smell of burning leaves, of burning wood, of burning dirt, of burning everything. It surrounded her, blinded her, and left her senseless, until she felt the burning hot strick on her left arm, crippling her. She felt her body stumble towards the ground.

 _Get up._ She cursed _. Don't be such a weak bitch_. But her arms were literally on fire. Her eyes tearing up from the tears from both the smoke and the pain. Her throat was dry as the woods that were burning. Her eyes ringing from all the chaos taking place by the seconds around her.

 _I'm not weak_. She told herself as she tried to crawled forward. She might have lost her sense of reality because of the next second she felt as if she was moving. Not crawling, moving rapidly, or more specifically being dragged rapidly. And it wasn't until the smoke was slightly behind her that she recognized the arms over her shoulder moving her forward. He was running and he ran, arms around her shoulders, pushing her until the smoke and burning drifted off and found nothing else to burn. They were on a river bank, and in the corner of their eyes, they could see the bright orange flame a long way from them consuming the trees that lined the river bank.

Even when Clove stumbled towards the sands, he held on to her. Their cough mingled until she couldn't tell his from hers. After a minute of coughing, she remembered that they were on a river bank and tried crawling to the river, but didn't have to since he began dragging her. She got to the river much faster. And not caring if the water was actually safe to drink, she dunked her head in.

"You- you - tried to kill me." He spoke while gulping the water.

She rolled her eyes, though he didn't see. "Well, it's a good thing I didn't."

They stopped talking for a while, trying to drink as much as possible.

"Is that your way of saying thank you?" he offered.

She gave a little scoff, this time, water drops rolling down her chin. "If you are expecting a thank you, or even a sorry, then you might want to take that as any lame, kind gesture you are clearly hoping for."

"So, no?" He asked as if he needed clarification.

God, he was so dumb, she thought. She tried to kill him, and he saved her life. Was he really that naïve?

* * *

 **The District 1 characters are perhaps the most extroverted characters in the story. Reflecting on the movies, Glimmer seemed to have formed a 'relationship' with Cato in such a short time, which shows that she might be really good at making friends quickly. Or perhaps she is really charming. Although similarly extroverted, I always pictured Marvel as more annoying than charming. Although him being annoying is a part of the charm. Something about him (or maybe it's just the guy who play's him) makes me think of him as jovial, even in the face of death. He seems like the type of person who would tell a joke while he is dying.**


	7. Cold

**A reviewer (** Josephm611) **asked why they were trying to kill each other, and I think you mean Clove because she is the only one who outwardly express the intent to kill, and I think it was more tongue in cheek(?), although she wouldn't have any problem killing Peeta if it came down to it. I think the major thing between each tribute is that they don't trust each other on top of being confused. Some, as I hope I expressed clearly in writing, deal with this mistrust more subtle that others. Plus, although the Careers might not be able to 'recall' the purpose of the Academy. They still remember the experience they had training and it does still impact their behavior and attitudes. So although they aren't forced to kill each other, they are still trained Careers who would do anything to achieve their goals.**

 **Also really appreciate all the reviews, I've been getting. I would honestly like to be one of those people who write for themselves and not for reviews, but to be honest I am not always like that. I am currently in college, and pre-med, and writing is what I do when I am bored, so having reviewers really motivates me to write, even when I am busy and don't feel like it.**

* * *

"We're not allowed to send gifts?" Haymitch asked for the third time in five minutes. He was on his third drink.

"Something about triggering memories." Enoboria lifted her flask to her lips.

"This is such bullshit." Haymitch slurred.

"You're telling me?" The bitter drink sizzled on the tip of her fangs. She didn't like this. She didn't like this at all. The Games were supposed to be about killing and survival, but mostly killing. Not the "survival in the wild" bullshit the game makers were pulling.

She was bored out of her mind, yet she was at the edge of her seat. Despite having to ask herself if she was even watching the Games at times, she was engrossed in it. She was starting to understand why this Game had the highest rating ever in the Games' history. This was the kind of shit that the Capitalions eat up. It was almost like the start of one of those bad Capitol drama that came on during lunch time.

It was predictable. They wanted drama, that's why they put the boy from 12 and Clove together. The cold-hearted girl who would do anything to win, and the warm-hearted boy who would do anything to not win, so that the love of his life, the girl from 12 could win. However, judging from the Games so far, Enoboria was really started to doubt the boy from 12 actually had a thing for the Fire Girl - Girl on Fire - whatever. She wasn't one for names. But it could also be the mind wiping thing.

The game makers really weren't making any sense, but predictable none the less.

* * *

"What are you doing?" It came out as barely a shivered whisper, but she could tell that he heard her. That was how small the cave was. Small, dark and cold, but it sheltered them from the colder air outside. She could see the sea from the small opening of the cave.

He looked over his shoulder to her. "I don't plan to get hypothermia."

The other boy looked over at her before standing up. He had to lean slightly forward so that his head didn't hit the top of the cave.

Both boys took off their clothes so that only boxer brief was left. Katniss kept her eyes on the raging sea, shivering in her drenched, frozen clothes. She could feel the ice crystals starting to form around her hair, but that was the only thing she could feel. Her hands along with most of her body have started to go numb.

"If you die from hypothermia, we'll just dump your body in the sea, and I won't even feel guilty about it." It was the tall guy who spoke, and Katniss took the time to glare at him, before attempting to stand up. But her feet was numb causing her to stumble around trying to find her balance on two legs that she couldn't feet. A hand gripped her shoulder helping her stand still. His hand was cold, yet second by second , the contact warmed her skin.

"Turn around." She commanded. His hand still on her shoulder, he turned his body and face from her.

The blonde boy was at the opposite corner of the cave, and it wasn't until Katniss stared at him for a few seconds that he too turned around.

If she wasn't freezing, she would not be doing this. She took off her shoes.

She shrugged off the hand on her shoulder, placing all her weight against the cave wall. As she took off her blouse and pants, she watched the tall boy walked towards the bag that laid in the middle of the cave.

It was the blonde boys. They left theirs in the forest when they ran, however, this fact didn't stop the boy who was now searching through the backpack.

The other boy- the blonde, buff one - turned around at the unzipping of the bag. And although he was clearly staring down the boy who was looking through his bag, he said nothing.

Apparently, the bag was waterproof because a dry sleeping bag was taken out and laid on the cave floor.

"Get in." I didn't move, although it was clear that he was speaking to me. My eyes moved to the blond boy. It was his sleeping bag technically, and something told her that he wasn't really planning to share.

"Fine." Her eyes moved back to the tall guy. "Both of you can just freeze to death then." He crawled into the sleeping bag.

The blond guy eyes drooped and Katniss didn't miss the look of annoyance as if silently questioning himself if this was really happening. He walked to the middle of the cave and nudged the sleeping bag with his foot. "Get out."

It was unclear if the other boy heard him since his eyes were closed, but a second later the seemingly sleeping boy turned so his back was to the blonde boy. He clearly had no intentions to get up despite it not being his sleeping bag.

"There is still enough space." He murmured in a low voice, shuffling to the edge of the sleeping bag.

The blonde guy sighed and stood there staring down, until he gave in and got in, sticking to the opposite side of the sleeping bag. There was still room between them.

Katniss stood against the cold cave.

* * *

"So, where are you from?" Glimmer trudged across the forest. She was few steps behind them choosing to stay feet behind for a reason.

They didn't respond. Again. At least for a few seconds. They did, however, do the weird side-eye at each other. She didn't know if they realized how much they looked at each other. As if they were having secret conversations with each other with their looks.

"Five." The red-headed girl murmured first.

"Ten."

They were from different district. Why weren't they at least interesting in that fact? Instead, they just kept walking in silence.

Glimmer found herself getting annoyed. Were they mad that she came back after running away and threatening them? She apologized about that.

Maybe they just didn't want her around? The thought came to her despite Glimmer knowing that she had not done anything to make them dislike her (except for the incident yesterday which she apologized for and explained herself).

The experience of being given a cold shoulder was foreign to her. Everybody liked her. She was beautiful, charming and warm to people (unless she was in a bad mood).

But the silence and looks between them made her assume that they would prefer to not have her around.

"Do you guys not want me around or something?" She asked with hesitation.

For a second she thought that they were going to ignore like how they have been doing, but a few seconds they both slowed down and looked back at her.

She anticipated it. So much so that before their head could turn towards each other, Glimmer shouted, "Stop looking at each other."

The froze, all their attention now on her and only her. "If I didn't know better, I would think that you two are both secretly planning to murder me and stash my body somewhere deeper into the forest."

The small smile that she almost missed on Chen's face made her rethink her thought of saying that as a joke. "You aren't planning to are you?"

 _Yeah. Because people usually tell their victim when they were planning to murder them._ Glimmer took a step back.

Again, with the silence. Oh, my god, why didn't she realized before that they were the classic case of sociopaths (or psychopaths). She didn't really know the difference, but either way, they were both quiet, sneaky and outright strange, so they were probably one of the two.

"I can out run both of you." Shit. It's not a good plan to tell people you are trying to get away from that she was about to run, was it? Plus, that was only half true. During their walk, she noticed that the boy walked with a limp in his right foot. She could out run him. It was the girl she wasn't sure about.

"We weren't planning to do that-" Chen spoke. "-but interesting idea."

See? Sociopath. Who else would think that the thought of murdering her was interesting? Either that or he had a very sick, twisted sense of humor. But sociopaths mostly have dark humor, didn't they?

"You guys need to talk more." Glimmer looked between them, but like before they still said nothing. And Glimmer sighed a long, and loud sigh as they started to look at each other.

* * *

He should leave. If he left now, he wouldn't feel guilt, compared to before when he thought about leaving her alone in the forest.

But also, he is realizing the that she wasn't as helpless, as he thought. He didn't miss the purple bruises on the tip of every finger, while they were drinking from the river.

"Your arm is burnt." He pointed out when they were still in the water.

She ignored him as if she didn't hear. He reached out to her arm, but she sharply moved away and glared at him, ask if she was silently asking how he dared to even touch her.

"Your arm-" He set out to repeat again, but she cut him off. "You think I don't know, idiot?"

He was gradually getting used to her snarls and insults. Probably a sign that he has been around her for too long. Yet, he also didn't miss the brief glimpse of pain in her expression when she moved her arm.

Ignoring her, he reached for her arms again. This time, he gripped tight enough so that she couldn't shrug him off, without it being very painful for her.

The skin was scribbled and slightly peeling off. He was impressed at how easily she made it seem as if it was painless, trivial burn.

"Are you done harassing me now?"

He raised an eyebrow at her. A bit confused. But hell, confusion was the status of his mood since yesterday.

He ripped the bottom of his shirt. He considered ripping her's since it was her injury but realized that he was on the very thin ice with her at the moment and didn't want to apply pressure in any way possible. He took the small piece of cloth and wrapped it around her arm.

He didn't expect her to thank him, and she didn't.

* * *

 **So in my** mind **, Cato is really complicated. Probably, the most complicated characters in my story. I am well aware that many fanfiction authors like to write him as extrovert, and possessive which works well in some stories and not so well in others. But personally, I actually think that Cato and Katniss have a lot of similarities personality- wise. I don't think that Cato would be a talkative person. Reflecting on the movies and book, Cato seemed to always be played as a leader and a strong person, and most of his dialogue and action reflect around winning the games. I see him as someone who** is really focused **and diligent of getting what he wants, without saying more that he need to say. Like Katniss. I don't think he would ever joke around much. That's more of Marvel's thing. Or** expression **feeling or emotion.**

 **But I am curious, how is Cato like in your head?**


	8. Water

**I have such big plans for this story, but I struggle with execution as a writer. I've had this story in my head for about two years now, and I just want to get it out and get it out well. I think that it is probably my best thought-out plotlines and I can actually she myself doing it justice. I just have to be patient and believe in myself,and not be such as a goddamn perfectionist. Your reviews also help (hint hint).**

 **This chapter is kinda short because I was supposed to write a section from Flinch, Glimmer or Chen's perspective, but I didn't. Sorry.**

* * *

He didn't like being alone. So, naturally, he was happy that he had the other two around. He still didn't know their names.

"I just realized something." He announced, hoping to catch their attention. However, he didn't know if he managed to achieve or not since neither of them responded in any way. Ignoring this, he went on.

"We don't know each other name" Marvel could have swore he heard a sigh from one of them, he thinks the other boy.

Still silence. "Seriously?" Marvel questioned. "We're pretty much naked and sharing a sleeping bag, the least we can do is exchange names."

This was no doubt awkward and they were making it even more awkward by being aloof and stuck-up.

"My name's Marvel." He started off, hoping to prompt them into saying their name.

"Katniss." The girl murmured, almost so low that he didn't - wouldn't - have heard it if he was directly behind her.

After another minute of silence, the other boy spoke, "Cato."

Marvel sighed. "See. That wasn't so hard was it."

"Can you stop talking now?" the boy - Cato - murmured.

Marvel half turned his head to glare at the boy, but realized that the restricted space prevented him from even turning to see the boy. He simply rolled his eyes before making his body still and closing his eyes.

* * *

"I don't know how to swim."

She stared at the blonde boy. Peter? Peeta? Whatever?-

"What?" He asked. "Twelve isn't known for its abundance of water, you know."

"You're from 12?" She couldn't help but ask.

"Yeah. We didn't get to really introduce ourselves, did we?" She could almost pick up that he was teasing her. "You're not from 12."

She raised an eyebrow. Did she look like she was from twelve? She knew that she was far from even the top ten attractive girls in Two, but did she really look that bad.

He didn't look like he was from 12. Although, he too would be far way from attractive in 2. Actually, she would coin him as an average boy in 2. The blond hair, blue eyes and muscles.

"Where are you from?" he asked as if he was actually expecting an answer.

She shook her head. "You go south. I go north."

She didn't like baggage, and that is what he is becoming to him. She liked to do things her own way. She was a loner. A trait she took pride in. She didn't need people around her. She didn't like people around her, especially when they were useless to her.

She thought about it. He could be useful in certain things like protection from things that might be difficult for her to handle, such as large animals and it would be convenient to have an extra set of eyes around to keep watch so she could have more sleep, but on the down side he couldn't swim, he was a naïve idiot, who would slow her down from actually finding a way back home, plus he wasn't even from 2 (so conflict of interest,there), and she worked better alone. So dumping him sooner than later seemed like a good plan for her.

"What?" he asked as if he was confused.

She rolled her eyes. "Where are my knives?"

He stood in silence. She took a step towards him.

"I don't have them."

She almost saw red or rather starting to see red, but she tried to keep calm.

Before she got the chance to say anything or rather shout at him, he tried to explain, " If you didn't notice, I was quite busy running from a forest fire and helping you escaping a forest fire after you tried to strangle me!"

"I'm going to kill you."

"You know, you say that a lot, but can't seem to follow through with it."

"Oh, believe me. It's not lack of trying." She kicked her feet in the same, causing a pile of sand to fly in his direction.

He turned his face away to escape the sand flying in his face, leaving Clove the perfect opportunity to leap at him.

They were rolling in the sand. She was on top of him, hands grappling the sand only to fling it in his face. But she was light, and despite not seeing a thing, Peeta rolled her from off him so that he was pushing her into the sand. She threshing around making it hard for him to hold on to her.

He underestimated her strength and was surprised when she kneed him in the stomach and kicked him off her landing him in the water. She took a second to split sand out of her mouth before crawling over to him and pushing his face into the wet sand.

The water was shallow at first, but as they pushed and rolled each other, they got deeper into the water. Clove used this to her advantage and tried repeatedly to push his head into the water, but he was stronger than her and managed to rise from her push momentarily.

In the heat of their scrabble, his hands brushed aginst her arms and she couldn't help but giggle.

A weakness of hers: she was very ticklish. Though, no body got close enough to or even dare to find out about this weakness.

He either purposefully or unconsciously - she wasn't sure - start tickling her arms. Although she tried her hardest to keep pushing his head down, soon enough she was in a fit of giggles focusing on trying to push his hands from her arms, but he kept on.

"Stop." She laughed, as she tried to escape his arms, and flash water in his face as a tactic to get him to stop. When she did get way, it took her a minute to realize that they were both laughing heavily while playfully flashing water in each other direction.

When she realized, she stopped immediately, and as the last flash of his water hit her in the face, his smile slowly swept from his face and they stood there serious, and awkwardly staring at each other as if the last few minutes didn't happen.

She scowled at him, before walking through the water back to the sand.


	9. Sand

She was dumb. Stupid. Lacking in the intelligence department. A bimbo. (It's didn't help it that she is blonde). That is what he thought of her.

He didn't like stupid people. So, naturally he didn't like her. She reminded him too much of the girls back home, who thought that their personality and looks entitled them to have the whole world revolve around them. She seemed like that kind of girl to him. Stupid, very vain, and tried too hard to be liked.

It didn't matter. He hoped that soon they would find their way out of the forest and since they were from different districts, then they would never have to encounter each other again.

Flinch was alright. Perhaps, someone he could manage to tolerate and possibly even become acquaintance with. She was smart and had a leveled head, especially for a girl. But again, he didn't really care enough to get to know her since they would soon be separated and back in their own District.

Boom!

He was pushed to the ground as something with sizable force pushed him. He soon realized that it was the blonde chick - Glimmer- she said her name was?

Stupid name. So much so, that he thought she was joking when she first said it. But people in other District's name their kids after strange things.

Glimmer was seemingly unconscious and it wasn't easy to push her body off his. He sat up, just in time to see a blue, electric-looking burst of light flicker repeatedly a distance away. It stopped almost instantaneously, and naturally his eyes meet with Flinch's.

He quickly realized that what Glimmer pointed out just a few minutes earlier was true. He and Flinch did look at each other a lot, especially since Glimmer rejoined them. Apart from the fact, that he was really good at sizing people up by just looking at them, he had the idea that perhaps Flinch also had this ability.

She didn't trust Glimmer. And he would bet that she knew that he didn't trust Glimmer either.

Maybe the blonde wasn't so dumb after all.

There was a groan, and he turned his eyes back to Glimmer. Her eyes open a second later.

"Are you alright?" It was Flinch who spoke.

Another groan.

Flinch waked over to us, and bent down at Glimmer's side. It was clear that she didn't know what to do in a situation like this, and her natural awkward disposition just showed itself more clearly.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" She asked, holding up three fingers.

This time there was no groan, but an obvious, confused whisper, "What?"

Flinch looked at him, but it wasn't one of the usual looks. She wordlessly pleading for him to do something. But he just stared back in silence.

"I can't feel my legs." Glimmer admitted.

"If you can't walk , we are leaving you behind." He said bluntly, as if it was the most logical thing to say in a situation like this.

But her response was anything, but logical to him. The blonde girl was laughing. It went on for a minute as her laugh filled the atmosphere. And then stopped abruptly.

"Oh, shit. You're serious." Emerald eyes faced light brown one, as the sound of the life around them filled the silence.

Glimmer raised her head, and found herself now sitting up on the forest ground. "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to say everything you are thinking?"

"No. She died when I was young." He said, again with the most banal tone.

Glimmer stared at him, before looking away and sighing. "Ok then. Could you at least help me up, so that I can see if I can walk or not?"

Hands grip Glimmer's shoulder on both sides, as she was pulled up from the ground to her feet. She was leaning on her right foot, before she placed the left on the ground. He didn't miss the gleam of pain in her expression.

"What happened?" She asked, looking in the distance, pushing strands of her long blonde behind her eyes. She trying to distract herself and them from the pain.

He looked at Flinch, before she replied, "Force field. We're trapped."

* * *

"You lost my knives." She spoke when he got back to shore. "I should kill you."

"Yeah." I shrugged sitting down. "Perhaps." I was getting used to her threats, so much so that they lost all seriousness to him.

He could feel her intense glare in his direction, as laid down on the sand. This was nice, he admitted to himself, forgetting about his situation and problems. It lasted a few seconds, only to be destroyed by the feeling on small, grainy sand thrown on his face.

The particulate got in his mouth causing him the sensation of choking. He wanted to cough, but the sand kept on hitting his face and his mouth. Perhaps, he was wrong to not take her seriously.

"Stop." He tried to speak, using his hand to cover his face.

"Stop." He said again, as he started to laugh. It wasn't a funny situation; it wasn't even a pleasant situation, but the feeling on sand hitting his face (despite being slightly painful), was actually a bit ticklish. Plus the whole situation of her trying to kill him with sand was just funny to him.

She stopped, and he could see her staring at him through his fits of laughter.

"What are you doing?" She asked, a scowl on her face.

It took him a few seconds to seize his laughter, before he could ask "Is laughing upsetting to you now too?"

"Everything you do is upsetting to me." She replied smoothly.

He sighed. "Fair enough. You don't like me. I'm not offended. I doubt you like a lot of people."

She scoffed, but didn't reply.

"You still haven't told me your name?"

"Don't hold your breath."

* * *

"We need to find a way out of here or at least try to remember how we got here in the first place?"

He was stuck with them, so why not put them to good use.

"Shh! I am trying to sleep." The boy - Marvel - shouted in a sleepy haze.

He didn't know what time it is, but judging from the sky and his knowledge that he usually woke up five a.m, he could estimate that it was almost six.

Cato was annoyed. They had to nerve to demand that he shared his sleeping bag with them, and then had no shame about sleeping in his sleeping bag longer than him.

He looked at Katniss. She was awake. Her eyes were even open but she was silent. She actually woke up before him, either that, or see simply didn't sleep all night, but waking up to someone just staring at your back wasn't the most calming feeling.

"Do you two plan on staying here?" He got dressed, and was now sitting in a corner of the cave.

"Look, dude, can we actually talk about this when it's light out?"

He took a deep breath, and tried to imagine himself using his sword in his head. The way, Brutus told him to.

"I don't remember anything." Her voice broke his imagination.

"Well, have you actually tried?"

"No." She replied. "I haven't tried to think of how I got in a strange forest with people I don't know."

It took him a second to realize that she was being sarcastic.

"There is nothing there." She continued. "I remember things about my life, but there are gaps, things that I know I am forgetting but I just don't know what."

"Things are too perfect." He replied.

There was a scoff from the body in the sleeping bag. "Really?What things?" Marvel asked.

"I'm too calm. If I was really lost in the middle of nowhere, I wouldn't even sleep. I would have tried to find my way back, but I choose not to."

"Maybe because it is pointless to wonder around without a clear sense of where you're going."

"No, because somehow I know that it pointless to try and escape."

"So, why did you wake us up to try and find our way out of here?" Marvel was not sitting up in the sleeping bag, much to Katniss annoyance was was still laying down.

"Trying to do something pointless is still an option."

* * *

"What do you mean we're trapped?"

"It means that we can't leave." Chen replied.

Glimmer rolled her eyes at him, before looking back at Flinch. "I meant how?"

Flinch sighed, thinking about the simpliest way she could explain. "A force field is like an invisible wall of energy, which you physically can't get through unless you shut off the power source?"

"This makes no sense." Glimmer exclaimed. "If there is this force field thing around us, then how did we get in here in the first place."

Flinch thought about it last night. She thought about the possibility that they were placed here, but she ruled it out as being ridiculous and far-fetched, but apparently not. Currently, all evidence pointed towards that theory. Things were too perfect. Too logically irrational. There was a sense of 'fake' randomness, she could pick up on, along with the feeling that they were being watched.

Nevertheless, she shrugged her shoulders. " I don't know."

Her eyes caught Chen's. He knew she was lying. She knew that he knew that she was lying but she just looked away.

"If we find the power source, how do we turn it off?" He asked.

"Depends on what type of source it is. But the hardest part will be finding the source in a forest like this."

"Well, we can't just stay here." Chen inputted

"We need to actually think about this." Glimmer replied. "We can find the power source and disconnect it but, who knows what that will lead to. We might be far from each of our Districts, escaping is one thing, but finding our way back is another."

"Still, we can't just stay here." Chen repeated, staring at Glimmer.

"We'll just try to find the closest District together, then hopefully we can get help to go back to ours." Glimmer suggested.

"Yeah, if the Capitol doesn't try to kill us for treason first?" Glimmer murmured.

"What did you just say?"

"What?" Glimmer repeated.

"The Capitol."

"Yeah?" Glimmer confirmed. Eyes stared at each other for seconds before, Glimmer gasped "You never heard of the Capitol before?"

Flinch resisted the urge to roll her eyes ( although she was not the type to), or at least smile. She also didn't like to be mean or think bad things about people, but she couldn't help but recognize how dense their blonde counterpart was.

Chen obviously wasn't so kind, as the boy gave a short laugh before looking away amused.

"What?" Glimmer questioned.

Despite his amusement, Chen didn't seem bold enough to point out to the girl how stupid her question was.

"I know of the Capitol." Flinch simply replied.

"Then why did you ask me to repeat what I said."

Flinch sighed. "Nevermind."

* * *

"How long are they planning to make them stay in there?"

"Long enough for them to call me here."

Haymitch looked at his younger friend and co-victor.

"They called you?" He lifted his flask to his lips.

Finnick swallowed his liquor before replying. "Not the best 3 am call I have gotten."

Was It was that serious?

"Who called you?"

"It was a personal call."

Haymitch rolled his eyes. He wasn't in the mood for mind games. He just wanted to know what was going on and if any Victor was going to be in the know of the state of the games, it was Finnick. "Are you going to tell me what you know or what?"

"Why should I? We aren't particularly buddies." The younger man, lifted his flask again.

Haymitch sighed. "Should I be worried?"

"It depends." Finnick answered in a low voice.

"On what exactly?"

"How this all work out." 


	10. Together

Clove didn't like to complain. It was a sign of weakness, and there is nothing she hates more than weakness. So although, she felt like shit: She was cold and starving, and the river water was too cold to drink, she didn't complain.

"Are you cold?" He asked her.

She realized his habit of asking stupid questions and decided to a while to just ignore him if she didn't have the energy to shot back something sarcastic and offensive.

"No. I just like shivering. It's a hobby of mind."

"I'm sure it is." He responded as he stood up.

She noticed that he was more responsive to her jabs now, and at this point, their conversation could be described as bicker and banter, either word work.

He walked towards her only to stop when he was a few inches from her. Seemingly, over time her threats lost seriousness and he now also has no hesitation of invading her personal space.

He sat down next to her, and it is only to slight warmth that his body gives to her side, that stopped her from pushing him away, or more practically, sliding away from him.

"What are you doing?" She asked although she was well aware of his intentions.

"I doubt either of us have plans of freezing to death."

She didn't respond.

"Maybe we should have found a better place? Like the meadow?"

She wondered if this was his way of saying that he was right. After weeks of exploring around the river, they found several landscapes comprising of a meadow with a rusting, large structure, next to a lake.

Peeta was quite fond of the place and thought that it was best if they stayed there. Clove, however, was suspicious of staying anywhere near the large monument due to their ignorance of what it even was, as well as, the meadow being circled by trees, meaning that if another forest fire broke out, then they would be trapped.

The river bank was more open and if some other freak natural disaster happens, they could easily escape (well, she could escape. He still didn't know how to swim, not that she cared).

She told him that if he wanted to stay in the meadow, then she didn't care, but she was going to stay at the river bank.

She had to admit, her surprise or more like confusion when he followed her bank to the river bank that day. But it made her consider what he thought the relationship between them was. She has no hesitation of leaving him behind, if it came down to it, but apparently he wasn't thinking the same. On one hand, she didn't like the prospect of having some naive puppy following her around, but on the other hand, she realized she could use his naivety and his decision to stay with her to an advantage.

Either he had developed some stupid love crush on her or he was just one of those overly-nice people who happily make people take advantage of them, but over their time together, he complied with every request she made. He wouldn't ever ask her to keep watch but instead would volunteer to stay up all night, while she slept, leading him to take naps in the day or doze off often while he was supposed to be keeping watch. This concerned Clove since his dozing off while he was supposed to be keeping watch, could lead to her being in danger. That's why she sometimes suggests keeping watch when she woke up at night , to see his eyes drooping.

He was suspicious, the first night she did this. Leading to her stating, "If I wanted to off you, don't you think I would have done it already?"

He simply nodded and lied down in the sand.

* * *

She lifted the leaves again and stopped mid-air when he flinched away. Grey eyes meet sapphire ones, and without saying a word, he understood. He needs to stop flinching, it wasn't making it easier for her.

Her hands moved and place the leaves on the open wound on his shoulder.

"You need to more careful." She said as if she was his mother and he could get injured by playing too much on the playground. It amused him but didn't smile. "Don't you need to be saying that to him?" He nodded toward the other boy in the cave, who was laying down recovering from the cut along his torso.

"You both need to be more careful." She exclaimed.

"Ok. Mom." Marvel murmured.

Katniss glared at him but he didn't see it since he was staring at the cave ceiling.

"Fine. Stab each other to death. See if I care." She bit back before focusing her attention back to treating him. Her anger or at least annoyance, made her apply pressure to the leaves and Cato couldn't help but grimace. Was she sure this was helping, because it didn't feel like it was?

"Sorry." She murmured, proving that she noticed his grimace.

She threw the leaves down on the ground and then placed her hand on his shirt that was only half on. He only stared at the hair flowing around her shoulder as she attempted to put his arms in his shirt. He noticed that if he looked closely at a particular angle he could see that her hair wasn't completely black but had some stands of dark brown in it.

It wasn't until she pulled back that he stopped.

She moved away before he could say thanks, which suited him since he wasn't that good at saying thanks and was actually dreading what he would say to her after she was finished with him.

"It was an accident, you know. We weren't actually trying to kill each other." Marvel murmured.

It wasn't as if Katniss didn't know that they practiced sparring. They started because of the growing boredom that they experienced, after a few weeks of eating, sleeping and trying to explore their surroundings. They couldn't wander off too far due to concerns of getting lost from going too far away from the cave to get back before dusk. It was Marvel's idea, and initially, Cato thought it was dumb and a waste of time, but if Marvel had any skill, it was annoying someone until they did what he wanted them to do.

It wasn't that bad. It wasn't like training at the Academy but it was a good way to keep in shape and improve his technique, two things that were important to him.

Marvel attitude towards their sparring was both an annoyance and relief to him. Annoyance because the other boy was obviously just doing it to ease his boredom, as a distraction to the situation they were in and was not taking it as seriously as he was. But it was also a relief since he never happened to spar with anybody who wasn't trying best him, or show up his weak points.

Marvel wasn't competitive. He laughed when he continuously lost to Cato and had no hesitation to ask for one more round after being severely beaten by Cato. And he also laughed when his spear managed to best Cato's sword. He laughed as if it was all just fun and games, and trivial.

Whenever, he would show signs of being angry after losing, such as walking away or giving the silent treatment to both Marvel and Katniss, later that evening or night Marvel would always joke about his victory being a lucky shot or joke about Cato's attitude towards losing. At first, it annoyed him, but over time he guess he adapted some of Marvel's attitude towards sparring. He didn't have to take it so seriously. He was becoming comfortable. And that was bad.

If he is comfortable. Then he becomes complacent, and being from District 2, he can never allow himself to become complacent.

* * *

"Are you stupid?" He was usually the one saying that line, but this time it was him that was on the receiving end of it.

She was in front of him, and although his vision was fading in and out sharply, he could see her green eyes filled with panic.

"Please tell me that you didn't eat them too." She exclaimed looking up, and he figured that she was taking to Flinch.

"Open your mouth."

He was a bit unsettled by her strange command but didn't struggle or perhaps he didn't have the energy to struggle as she gripped his chin and propped his mouth open with her fingers.

"Shit." She cursed, as she moved around him, placing her hand on his torso. She was clumsily tightening her arms around his torso, and it made him very uncomfortable, but he couldn't move. He felt the bile rising as she continued and it wasn't until he threw up that she stopped.

"Those are poisonous nightlock." She declared.

He laid down on the ground not caring that he vomited only a few inches from where he was now laying. She gently pulled him over, so that he was further from it.

"From now on, I'm in charge of finding the food."

Neither him or apparently Flinch discouraged her in the moment.

The next thing knows, he is waking up and it clear that it is night. Despite the cold air on his face, the rest of his body is warm, and it only took him a second to realize that he was in a sleeping bag.

He leaned up to see another body in a sleeping bag, and then another sitting up, arms wrapped around shoulders to protect from cold.

"Why aren't sharing the sleeping bag with Flinch?" It was obvious that his voice startled her since she flinched when his first words came out.

"If you haven't noticed, I'm supposed to be keeping watch." She whispered, between shivers.

They had two sleeping bag and it became a habit for the persons not keeping watch to occupy them. However, it wasn't usually this cold.

He zipped open his sleeping bag, and the cold air hitting his body made him want to crawl back in the sleeping bag. Nevertheless, he crawled over to her. He could see that she was shivering much more than he could notice back in his sleeping back.

"I'll take over watch." He spoke.

"You need to recover from earlier." She shivered.

"I'm fine."

It was dark, but he could see her look of disbelief since he was so close to her.

"Go." He nodded towards the sleeping bag.

When she made no movement to go, he sighed and crawled back enough so that his hand could grip the sleeping bag and pull it over to her.

He literally had to pull her in the bag, when he moved to zip it up, "Wait-" She murmured. She sat up slightly and watched as she quickly took off her jacket, and handed it to him.

"It's cold." She murmured as if he could feel the temperature out.

He helped her zipped up the sleeping bag.

It was his way of saying thanks for earlier and returning a part of the favor (she did save his life, so he was sure this wouldn't cover it all), but she seemed to have increased his debt slightly, by giving him her jacket. The soft whisper of "Thank you" from her lips didn't help either.

* * *

Aww, my babies are developing their relationships with each other. I think this is going to start to get really fun for me and hopefully for you. This chapter takes place after a few weeks of being in the Arena. I intend for them to be in the Arena between 3 to 5 months before any major events happen, so the next few chapters will be jumping between weeks and consist of mentions of events instead of writing out everything that happens between them. (Sorry, I am a lazy writer, but it is because this is only a portion of what I have in store, albeit very important, since the big question is "how close are they going to get?")


	11. Sleep

_Katniss_

She couldn't sleep, which has become a more frequent occurrence since of lately.

Or perhaps it was because she was afraid of sleeping. They said she had nightmares, one that she cried in and couldn't remember after she jolted awake either by their voices or their hands.

She couldn't sleep. So she traced the muscles of Cato's neck with her eyes, for how long? She couldn't recall. And then she managed to free her hand from the overcrowded sleeping bag to ghostly traced the muscles with her fingers, never actually touching them. She was bored and sleep deprived. Yes, that was her excuse for doing this (Whatever she was doing).

She shook her head. She has gone mad, hasn't she? That's what having nobody but two people to socially interact with for roughly a month will do to you. But Katniss wasn't big on social interactions; never have been. She was a loner as far as she could remember. She didn't trust strangers. She hardly trusted anybody. She didn't trust them, did she? All this thinking was leading to a headache and she forcefully cleared her thoughts as she continued to mindlessly traced her fingers above the outline of the muscles. Never touching them.

Never touch.

Don't do it.

* * *

 _Marvel_

My eyes were closed but I wasn't sleeping. I didn't want to.

Sleeping was an interesting activity, at least for the past month. He always liked sleeping, who wouldn't. It was a wonderful activity. And lately he have been looking forward to it more than anything. Or perhaps it was for some other reason.

His mind drifted to the spare. Yesterday. Katniss didn't like it when they spared. She always murmur something along the line of "-trying to kill each other", whenever the found the courage to watch or throughout the aftermath, when she forced us to let her attempt to heal the scars that we managed to inflict on each other. (She was terrible at it but neither of us said anything).

He looked forward to the spares. He looked forward to the rush of adrenaline he would get when Cato's sword barely grazed his torso, due to his swift move of retracting at the right moment. Or when his arrowhead goes awfully close to Cato's heart only to be blocked by his sword. Or during the last few minutes of their spare when their hands grip each other enough to leave a bruise later, or nails dig into skin, or when their face is so close that their exhaled air mingling together and when Katniss is watching from her usual spot in fear and something else he couldn't put his finger hand, and when those expression are wiped from her face and the look of annoyance take over, so much so that she leaps up and anticipating what she will do, their grip loosen slightly before she pulls them apart, accusing them of trying to 'kill' each other in multiple, colorful ways. It's humorous, to say the least.

He equally looks forward to her awful attempt of healing any injuries they had. Her mother was some form of district medic, but it was obvious that she didn't take from her mother's skills.

Perhaps he liked to sleep, or perhaps it's because he liked being close to them. Like he was now. He banished the thought from his head. He was being stupid, wasn't he?

He opened his eyes and although his vision was filled with dark strands of hair barely touching his face, he only had to peer up slightly to see her fingertip ghosting above Cato's neck.

He leaning forward as lightly as he could until his mouth was above her hair that covered her ear. "Do you know how creepy you're being?"

Her reaction was quick, and disappeared as quickly as it appeared. Het hand dropped and she made no attempt to explain or clarify herself. He wondered if she did the same thing to him when he slept. Did that matter? Did he actually hoped that the answer to that question was yes?

The bag was too crowded for her to turn around to face me. Well, without possibly waking Cato.

"I can't sleep." He was close enough to hear her whisper after the silence that lasted a while.

"Me too." He sighed.

"I guess we have different reasons?" She murmured.

"Perhaps."

He moved his hand towards her hair. It was damp, and she shivered as he pulled it behind her ears.

"Let's just try and sleep." He whispered.

* * *

 _Cato_

1, 2, 3 - he counted the circles that she was looping in the air, inches from his neck.

He was a light sleeper. As far as he could remember, the slightest of noise or touch could jolt him. He figured it was an advantage to him.

He wanted to go back to sleep, but her bizarre new-founded hobby was a distraction. Yet he said nothing. He just continued counting. Fifteen. Sixteen. Seventeen.

"Do you know how creepy you're being?" A voice whispered. A voice he wasn't used to being whispered, or anything but loud and annoying.

"I can't sleep." He heard her whisper back.

"Me too."

Me three.

He laid there listening until their light conversation dimmed, Marvel having the last words of encouraging her to sleep.

He closed his eyes, finally getting the silence he yearned for a few minutes ago, but it was now usuelly since his mind was anything but silent.

He didn't hate it here, but he didn't like it. It was complicated, and Cato didn't like complicated. He respected simplicity. But nothing was simple here. For once in his life, he found himself unsure, and in doubt, and nd he didn't like it one bit, but he had to admit it was interesting. They were interesting.


End file.
